Study: Millennials don't trust social media to safeguard data

By Rudy Takala, Rudy Takala

Published December 20, 2015

Millennials trust social media platforms to safeguard their personal information less than any other type of website, according to a survey released on Tuesday.

A total of 61 percent have little or no trust in social media platforms to safeguard their data, according to the study conducted by software company Intercede. Other categories include dating sites (55 percent distrust), retailers (38 percent) and the federal government (22 percent).

Meanwhile, six times as many expressed "complete trust" in the government (18 percent) as in social media (3 percent). Retailers and dating sites each had the complete trust of 4 percent.

That means that in spite of this year's Ashley Madison breach, which resulted in the theft of personal information on 33 million accounts, millennials still trust such websites more than they trust a social media platform like Facebook.